


Winning Halloween

by Chelidona (Hobbity)



Category: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies)
Genre: Getting Together, Halloween decoration shenanigans, M/M, Unrelated Fíli and Kíli
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-31
Updated: 2017-10-31
Packaged: 2019-01-27 05:00:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,607
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12574260
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hobbity/pseuds/Chelidona
Summary: The Halloween decoration competition at the office offers Kíli the perfect opportunity to get to know his new colleague a bit better ... and when the Mirkwood team plays dirty, they've got to play dirtier and become a real team.





	Winning Halloween

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you @Khafusushun for betaing and editing, as always! And you should all thank him, because there was one very awkward bit which he completely rewrote for me and which improved this a lot!

At first, the idea of a Halloween decorating competition between the different pods on the office floor was met with mild whining. Not another task on top of work!

Kíli was a bit disappointed with his pod mates. He had loved the idea as soon as it had been proposed! Halloween! Decoration! Competition! What wasn’t there to love?

So, of course, he volunteered to go out and buy decorations for his team. 

“Who wants to come with me?” he asked in the team chat, already steeling himself for a chorus of “naaaah, no time …” And indeed, most did not even bother to reply. But then a message from Fíli, Kíli’s gorgeous new coworker who also, regrettably, sat the furthest away from Kíli, popped up.

“Sure, sounds fun. When are you off?”

Kíli grinned at his screen, secure in the knowledge that no one was paying him enough attention to realise.

Fíli had immediately caught Kíli’s eye when he had been introduced as their new colleague some weeks before, but so far most of Fíli’s time had been hogged by Thorin, their manager, and Bofur, who had been given the task of helping Fíli out as he got started. But not anymore -- now Fíli was all Kíli’s for a fun shopping tour!

Kíli chattered all through their bus trip, and Fíli proved to be an attentive listener, genuinely laughing at all of Kíli’s jokes, and even gently teasing him on occasion. And, once they hit the shops, it turned out that their tastes in Halloween decor were very similar. 

Once they had loaded up on spider web fabric, plastic spiders, styrofoam gravestones, balloons, and styrofoam skulls (not to mention some pipe cleaners and clay to get creative with), Kíli found himself reluctant to let Fíli go home.

But it was Fíli who said: “Fancy a coffee to warm us up before we head home?”

And amazingly enough, they found a spot at a coffeeshop with enough space to store their material while they sat and discussed some ideas for decorating the pod. While they were forming some colourful spiders out of the pipe cleaners, they started talking about their previous weekends, trips they had taken, and the jobs they had held previously, and what had brought them to work in Erebor. As Kíli had suspected, Fíli had grown up in Ered Luin too, and they soon discovered some common acquaintances from back home.

It was already late by the time they both realised they were hungry, but neither suggested they share dinner. So they headed home, separately, each carrying half of their loot.

***

The sight of Fíli and Kíli’s decorations sparked the enthusiasm of their colleagues the next day, which meant there wasn’t a lot of work being done as everyone was busy arranging fake spider webs and spiders, and giant versions of their colleagues with balloon heads and spare clothes.

But the stroke of genius was Fíli’s idea to construct a gigantic spider out of black trash bags and arrange it over the window. Kíli helped with the construction while their colleagues filmed them, and they were accompanied by a big round of applause as they set her up to look as if she had just creeped in from the window.

Everyone was convinced they would win the competition.

*

The mood turned dramatically not even a half hour after they had finished. Gloin had looked up to discover that the Mirkwood team had hung _three_ giant spiders made out of trashbags from the ceiling above their pod.

_“Plagiarism!”, “Cheap copies,” “these bastards...”_ and, _“I can’t believe they’d just steal our idea!”_ were the most polite things stage whispered around the pod. Kíli was too stunned by the treachery of the Mirkwood team to even react. He caught Tauriel’s eye, his friend on the Mirkwood team, and tried to convey his sense of betrayal. She just grimaced and shrugged. 

Just when he had nearly calmed down enough to get on with work, Fíli plopped down next to him.

“Take a smoke break with me?”

“I don’t …” Kíli began, but Fíli interrupted, whispering harshly:

“We need to come up with an idea to stop them from stealing our prize, come on!”

So Kíli followed him outside, taking a deep breath of the crisp, cold air. 

“So,” Fíli began, when they had taken a spot away from anyone else. “This is clearly not on.”

“Absolutely not!” Kíli was just about to start on a rant, when Fíli interrupted him again.

“I think we need to come in tonight, while everyone's at home, and take their stupid spiders away.”

Kíli gasped. “Have you gone mad?” he demanded. “We’ve got to open the door by checking in with our badges, they’ll know it was us!”

“Rubbish.” Fíli smirked. “Thorin told me that the system does not actually recognize our individual badges, they’ll never know who came in. And the CCTV is turned off, too.”

Kíli gaped, giddiness bubbling throughout his body. “That’s brilliant! What time is safe, do you think?”

***

By nine pm, a local school entrance had been adorned with three giant spiders, and Fíli and Kíli were giggling like school children in the dark shadow of the wall of the school yard. It felt just like a boyhood adventure. 

“That went well,” Fíli remarked. “What do you say? Shall we go and celebrate?”

“Of course! Just, not in the local pub, the bartender knows Tauriel.”

“No worries, we can go to the one around the corner from my place, they’ve got the best craft beer in town.”

“Brilliant.”

Kíli couldn’t help but jostle his shoulder against Fíli’s as they walked, and Fíli jostled him right back. They were both laughing so hard that a young man walking his dog even crossed to the other side of the street as they approached. Which only made them laugh harder.

“To the best colleague I ever had.” Fili clinked his glass against Kíli’s at the pub later.

Kíli blushed. “You don’t know that, we’ve barely even worked together.”

“We stole three giant spiders together without getting caught. Can you think of better teamwork?”

“No.” Kíli giggled. “Shame that I won’t be able to mention this in interviews.”

“True enough.” Fíli took a long sip of his ale. “But I can’t wait to see Thranduil’s face tomorrow.”

“Or Thorin’s, when he sees Thranduil upset.”

“Shame we can’t tell Thorin it was us, he’d give us a raise.”

It was 11pm by the time they left the pub, and it only seemed natural that Fíli would offer Kíli a place to stay for the night. Half an hour was clearly too long a journey at this time of night for an adult who had barely had anything to drink anything, after all.

While Fíli was unlocking his front door, he suddenly looked at Kíli.

“Just so everything’s out in the open, I want you to know that I’m gay, and I like you, but that doesn’t mean…”

“I like you too!” Kíli blurted, and felt himself blush; that was probably the dumbest-sounding confession he had ever mustered. 

But Fíli was smiling at him now, and that gave Kíli the courage to lean in. “Is it all right if I was reading into your offer to let me stay the night?” he asked, his voice hoarse to his own ears.

“Absolutely. Fíli slung his arms over Kíli’s shoulders, tilting his face up. “I had hoped you might.”

Seconds later, Kíli was inside Fíli’s apartment and kissing him fiercely, feeling drunk on all the adrenaline of the day. It seemed like a dream, but Fíli’s hot body pressed against his, and the rough wall at his back felt real, so real and so addictive.

He barely noticed when Fíli gently pressed himself forward.

“The bedroom’s upstairs,” Fíli said between kisses.

But it took some more heated kisses before they could make themselves let go of each other and stumble upstairs.

“Your flatmate?” Kíli asked, his head clear enough just for a moment to remember the existence of a guy called Ori.

“With his brother tonight,” Fíli explained, and all thought of anything but the prospect of undressing Fíli right now fled Kíli’s mind.

***

They had barely found any sleep that night. Sex with Fíli was even more amazing in real life than in any of Kíli’s nightly fantasies. 

At the office, nobody seemed to realise that this was the first time Fíli and Kíli had arrived together -- particularly because the theft had been noticed by the time they got there, and Thranduil was already stomping around, demanding the competition be cancelled, demanding an enquiry, and demanding consequences.

“I have patience,” he growled, coming to a halt in front of Thorin. “I will find out which one of you was responsible for this, and I will let Gandalf know, don’t you worry. This will not go unpunished.”

“Go on then,” Thorin encouraged him. “Waste your time. Waste the company’s resources on investigating what happened.”

The ensuing staring competition had everyone averting their eyes in order to prevent themselves from giggling.

***

The Durin team won the decoration competition. Naturally. And they all went to get pizza two nights later with the voucher they won. Fíli had his arm around Kíli all evening, neither of them even bothering to hide that they were together.

While the relationship between the different teams on the floor took months to heal, the competition had been a complete success for two very happy young men. In the years to come, they would bore their friends and family every Halloween by repeating the story, their exploits somehow becoming more daring and impossible with each retelling.

**Author's Note:**

> I know this was short, but I'd love short (or long) comments ;)


End file.
